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Key Vote

Key Vote YES on Stopping the IRS Assault on Free Speech

As one of our millions of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask that he or she vote YES on the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, H.R. 3865. Sponsored by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), this bill would stop (for a year) the IRS from finalizing regulations which would stifle the free speech of c4 non-profit organizations.

Congressman Camp’s legislation would prevent the IRS – for one year – from finalizing a proposed regulation that would, if enacted, prevent 501(c)4 non-profit groups from exercising even basic elements of political speech. This includes non-partisan candidate forums, voter registration or get-out-the-vote efforts, or even mentioning any candidate for political office within two months of an election.

This regulation would hurt grassroots activism on both sides of the ideological spectrum, but would be particularly devastating to the thousands of tea party, 9/12, and other liberty-minded grassroots groups – the same organizations which have been targeted for harassment by the IRS. The proposed regulation is an arbitrary assault on the free speech of just those groups which the IRS finds politically inconvenient – and sets a precedent for them to apply the same restrictions to other groups of Americans as well.

For these reasons, I urge you to call your representative and ask him or her to vote YES on the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, H.R. 3865. We will count their vote as a KEY VOTE when calculating FreedomWorks’ Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2014. The Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of Congress who consistently vote to support economic freedom.

The global community has been rocked by tragedy after tragedy over the last several weeks, but few instances have captured the international spotlight as readily as the recent attacks in London . The international community was quick to offer their support to the beleaguered Britain, but a troubling response came from that nation's own leader.

Freedom of speech ranks chiefly among the civil rights protected by the First Amendment.The founders recognized that a free society must be allowed to grapple with conflicting ideas and viewpoints in order to flourish. Students have been taught the significance of free speech for centuries and American society has counted on educators to ensure the next generation of citizens are well equipped to handle opposing viewpoints. The great tradition of schools and universities being bastions of free speech and civil discourse has been ingrained in the American psyche and upheld by academics and administrators alike, until recently.

Free speech on college campuses has become a significant issue. From the riots at Berkeley over Milo Yiannopoulos, to the use of harassment of Charles Murray at Middlebury College, there have been cases of individuals being silenced to stop them from speaking their thoughts on various issues. However, one pressing issue has been administrative support to silence dissent and prevent opposing viewpoints from being heard. This flies in the face of actually learning, of which colleges are supposed to be a bastion.

Following a report that the Democratic National Committee is considering the inclusion of language endorsing federal investigations into climate change skepticism, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented:

As one of our over 5.7 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask them to vote YES on H.R. 5053, the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act, introduced by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.). This bill would stop the IRS from collecting and releasing information about donors to tax-exempt organizations, chilling political speech. H.R. 5053 is expected to be considered on the House floor as soon as tomorrow.